This child is named Trina, a sixteen year old girl who was charged with second degree murder and sentenced life in prison just as the rest. Trina had a rough life as a child, she was born into poverty and went to the worst ranked school in Pennsylvania. It didn't help that Trianas father was an alcoholic that was abusive who raped and assaulted both the mother and her. She was put into a program to help her with the psychiatric problems she faced. Trina decided to run away from her abusive dad.…
Introduction The case study involves Hernandez versus Texas this was a Mexican – American civil right case which was recorded as the first one. The case was listened by States Supreme Court this was after the Second World War. Historically it was around 1950. The case was involved murder the named Pete Hernandez who was a cotton picker was accused of killing Joe Espinosa. They were no Mexican who has served on the jury for more than twenty-five years.…
The Hernandez V. Texas case began when Pete Hernandez shot and killed Joe Espinoza. Pete was a crippled Mexican agricultural worker, who was being made fun of by Joe at a bar when the incident happened. On October 8, 1951 attorney Gustavo Garcia, entered a plea of not guilty for Hernandez and argued that Hernandez wasn’t being offered an equal trial, due to there being no Mexican Americans in the jury. The court argued that by law Mexican Americans are white, and the jury was made up of white Americans therefore it was a fair and equal trial. Resulting in attorney Garcia taking the case to the supreme court.…
The U.S. Supreme Court would judge the case on whether sentencing a fourteen-year-old to life in prison without parole violates the Eight and Fourteenth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (Carrizales & Schultz, n.d.). Miller’s counsel argued that sentencing a fourteen-year-old to life without parole without considering certain factors such as his age violates the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments’ ban on cruel and unusual punishment (Carrizales & Schultz, n.d.). The state of Alabama argued that punishing a fourteen-year-old to life without parole does not violate the Eight or Fourteenth Amendment, but serves a justifiable penological goal when the crime is aggravated murder (Carrizales & Schultz,…
From the beginning Aaron Hernandez was destined to be a great football player. He had all the athletic skill in the world and had the physical size to back it up. He had made a name for himself since his high school days, breaking and setting state records, and then in college he boasted that he would eventually make it into the NFL. That day did come but in a matter of seconds Aaron Hernandez threw that privilege all away; one bad decision has now altered his life path. He had gone from a $40 million NFL contract to $4 a day, life in prison without the chance of parole contract.…
In the case of Roper versus Simmons, the question at hand is whether the execution of a human being who was17 years old when he committed a murder violated the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments pertaining to cruel and unusual punishment (Elrod and Ryder, 2014). These Amendments forbid the obligation of the death penalty for those who suffered from a mental disability and who were insane should be prohibited from a sentence of capital punishment (Elrod and Ryder, 2014). According to the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, it was lawful to execute a juvenile delinquent who was 15 years older but younger than 18 when he committed a capital crime (Elrod and Ryder, 2014). Roper versus Simmons paved the way in the judicial…
Today, there are only three different countries一Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran, who sentence the death penalty to people that have yet to turn eighteen. Before the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons, the United States used to be on that list. After the Supreme Court’s decision, anyone who was on death row for crimes that they had committed prior to turning eighteen were put off death row. Instead, they were sentenced to life without parole. No Choirboy written by Susan Kuklin, looks into five different stories of people who were affected by the death penalty in the United States prior to the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision.…
This case changed my outlook far as execution of juveniles. This case involved Simmons a young man that had a murder charge. I feel at age 17 you should be aware of our actions and with the fact that he bragged about the killing was an eye-opener to think of the possibility that this individual could have had mental issues or suffered some type of abuse as a youngster, that may have caused him to carry out this act of violence. I don’t feel he should have been executed due to these possibilities; however, a tough sentence should have been enacted. This case changed the development of sentencing anyone under the age of 18 to death it was ruled cruel and usual punishment.…
Time after time, generation after generation, there have always existed criminals. Burglars, drug dealers, captors, etc., but perhaps the most unforgivable of convicts are murderers. They "kill for the thrill", yet even more shocking is when the face behind the killer is that of an adolescent. What drives a child, who is still dependent on their parents for basic necessities, to kill another being? Whatever the reason may be, the consequences should be dire.…
Evan Miller has had a rough upbringing. He has had emotional abandonment from his alcoholic and drug abused mother, his abusive father and forced to be placed in multiple foster cares throughout his childhood. Miller is a prime example of an abandoned, troubled minor, whose true destiny has been destroyed due to these circumstances. The problems he has faced steered him to being depressed and unsatisfied, using drugs, alcohol and four suicide attempts to trying and fulfill the emptiness he has been feeling his entire life.…
Philip Holloway wrote the article “Should 11-year-olds be charged with adult crimes?” for the Cable News Network on October 14, 2015. Holloway, a CNN Legal Analyst, discusses the case of an 11 year old boy who murdered an 8 year old girl for refusing to allow the boy to see her puppy. The author believes juveniles shouldn’t be tried as adults and also points out that placing them in adult prisons puts them in more danger. Holloway suggests…
12). In this quote, Jenkins believes that a “life sentence still allows a great deal of living to be done.” Jenkins believes that with the life sentence that these juveniles are receiving, they are able to still live a good life behind bars. She also believes that the punishment of life in prison is still too lenient of a punishment for crimes such as murder when stating “far more than these teen killers gave to our murdered loved ones.” The reasoning for her argument points to only one example where a juvenile individual…
Introduction Capital punishment has been a topic of much debate for many years with very differing points of view. Much of the research done about capital punishment is based on the public opinions, making it an issue close to peoples morals and idealistic thought. The news media then caters to the leaning of the public’s morals. In dealing with capital punishment, the news media tends to focus on three different popular mentalities; the ‘eye for an eye’ mentality, punishment should fit the crime mentality, and the declaring it inhumane treatment of individuals mentality. By focusing on these three views, the media has been able to help inform the public according to the prevailing view of the individual case.…
Juvenile’s brains are also not fully developed. This made it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without the possibility of parole. I think this is a fair law because juveniles may be completely different once they hit adult hood, but the case of Miller V. Alabama made me feel differently. I still believe that he should be sentenced heavily. At the time of his crime he was fourteen, and fourteen year olds know that it is not right to murder someone.…
Criminal Justice Frontline’s video, “Second Chance Kids,” takes its viewers through a controversial topic: life in prison for those who committed crimes as teens. Before the mid 2000s, teenagers who murdered someone get sentenced to life without parole. The arguments that teenagers grow up and change convinced courts to reconsider giving parole to those who were convicted for their crimes made as a teen. In one case, Anthony Rolon was 17 years old when he committed a crime. He was helping his father with selling drugs but a party next doors got really loud.…